It never ceases to amaze me how many positive things surround us. If you are online, you have a wealth of material that can inspire you to do something. While there are thousands of people every day who watch an inspirational a TED video or listen to a motivational speaker like Craig Keilberger talking to youth, there are far fewer people who take that to the next step.

Our friend at Youth Voices, Laura O’Grady, recently blogged about her reflections on the HIV / AIDS movements and how far its come in 25 years and how much further it has to go. With the 2010 world AIDS conference having recently wrapped up in Vienna, it is worth considering how something that was virtually unknown 30 years ago (AIDS) has become arguably the most high profile health issue on the global stage.

Facebook has a relationship status option that says "It's complicated". But at Youth Voices, we tend to view things as complex. So what's the difference?

The G20 is meeting in Toronto this weekend. Leaders from around the world will be gathering for 2 days of intense meetings to discuss a wide range of issues around the theme of "Recovery and New Beginnings".

In advance of the summit, the Government of Canada hosted the Young Entrepreneurs Summit, which is part of the larger Canadian Youth Business Foundation Network.

Our team's hometown of Toronto is hosting 20 (plus) of the world's most powerful leaders for two days of high-level meetings to discuss everything from global finance and security to the environmental and human health of the planet. While the first two are important, our interest is on the latter.

Over the years these meetings have become increasingly used by civil society groups and individuals as a staging ground for protesting various policies, injustices and issues given the opportunity to be physically close to the world's most powerful men (and the occasional woman).

It's summertime and we're busy at the Youth Voices Research Group. I thought it would be easier to speak about what we're up to than write it so here's a look at what we are doing right now.

As always, you can follow us @yvresearch @food4health and check out our Facebook page and here for more updates. Or follow me @cdnorman.

A year ago, the Youth Voices Research Group held an event to mark Earth Day by focusing on food and its connection to our health and wellbeing. Drawing on the experience of 8 intense weeks of activity working with community-based food security groups, educators, food service and distribution organizations, farmers, and academic researchers we created a movement called Food4Health. I say movement because even though it was a project to start, the actions we took during that spring have lived on and taken a life of its own.

The Youth Voices Research Group will be attending the 2010 Unite and Ignite Conference in Ottawa, Ontario from the 18th to the 21st of March [http://typs.com/home/main.php?page=../2010%20conf/2010conf.html] . Samy Saad and Charlotte Lombardo will be hosting an Unconference consultation as part of our Access Project and will be premiering the first video from the project that highlight's the perspective of youth on issues of contraband cigarettes and access to smoking cessation treatment.

It's a special day for us at the Youth Voices Research Group. After spending so much time helping others improve their communications with the public and various audiences we've decided to shine our gaze upon ourselves and made the big leap to improve our website. The new look brings with it inspiration and a renewed commitment to sharing what we learn when we learn it.